1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a portable terminal, and more particularly to a method and an apparatus for retrieving a label by using a portable terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a result of the development of low-power, high efficiency, cheap hardware, the domain of the portable terminal has been recently expanded from simple voice calls to an application field employing image storage, reproduction, data communication, image process technologies, etc. Based on the development of the hardware technologies, the portable terminal can include a high-definition camera and provide various functions using the camera. For example, the portable terminal provides a function of character recognition, barcode recognition, face recognition, etc. using an image photographed through the camera.
In the meantime, according to the increase of the interest of people in wine, the demands for wine have increased. The annual domestic consumption of wine increases every year, and a 25% average annual growth rate has been recorded. Further, production of domestic wine and the consumption of imported wine have also increased, and the domestic wine market is expected to increase to $413,000,000 in 2010 according to research. As such, according to the increase of the interest in and the consumption of wine, a wine portal site providing wine information has been created, and online sales of wine, various offline activities, and community activities have been actively run.
As the interest in wine sharply increases, various services related to wine are being generated, and the most general service is to provide information on wine through a web-service. However, user demand varies, and users desire to receive the information on wine anytime and anywhere in a necessary time.
The tastes, kinds, and prices of wine vary according to a producer, a producing region, a species of grapes, a producing year, etc., and such wine information serves as a reference for the selection of wine. A label of wine is uniquely designed according to the wine information, so that a consumer can discriminate a wine through the wine label and obtain information on the wine. However, even if a producer or a brand of wine is the same, but the kinds of the wine are different, the labels may have the similar designs, so that it requires the professional knowledge so as to discriminate between wines.
Therefore, if it is possible to recognize a wine label, retrieve a corresponding wine label by using a recognized result, and provide a user with wine information using a portable terminal, the user, who does not have knowledge of wine, can receive wine information anytime and anywhere.
According to a conventional method for providing wine information, a barcode is attached to a wine label, the barcode is recognized, and then a wine is discriminated, so as to provide corresponding information of the wine. However, in the conventional method, the barcode has to be directly attached to a bottle of wine, so that additional expense is incurred and an additional barcode reader for reading the barcode is required, thereby failing to allow the general user to easily access the method.